Artist Paul Barton plays piano for rescued elephants

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2023/nov/24/experience-i-play-piano-for-rescued-elephants

https://paulbartonartist.com/media/

My wife is an artist and started making sculptures of elephants at a sanctuary called Elephants World, which cares for rescued domestic elephants just outside Kanchanaburi in west Thailand. There was one particular elephant that seemed to have such deep, passionate feelings. It made me wonder what would happen if I were to play music to them.

For my 50th birthday, my wife persuaded the manager of Elephants World to allow us to bring a piano into the sanctuary. These elephants have worked for humans all their life and many are blind or disabled from being treated badly, so I wanted to make the effort to carry something heavy myself.

Their breathing actually slows down when you play, which tells me they are relaxed and happy

To get the piano into the wilderness was challenging. The sanctuary is on the banks of the River Kwai, so we used a pickup truck to transport it. We placed it in a field planted with bana grass, where the elephants gather to eat their breakfast. It’s a peaceful area undisturbed by visitors.

When I started playing, it was hard to hear the piano above the sounds of nature and the elephants munching grass. Elephants are almost always hungry – if they get the opportunity, they’ll eat and they won’t stop. But as soon as I started playing, one elephant, who was blind, stopped eating and listened. We realised that this elephant, trapped in a world of darkness, loved music. From that day, there was never any concern about disturbing their peace, and that was the beginning of it all. We occasionally film the performances and now have nearly 700,000 YouTube subscribers.

I continue to play for these elephants that run free in the sanctuary, though I could be killed at any moment. It seems to be the male elephants, the ones who are moody and dangerous, that listen to the music the most. I have faith that the music somehow calms them. Once, a particularly dangerous bull elephant walked straight to the piano when I started playing, and curled up his huge trunk in towards his mouth. He looked like a baby sucking its thumb. He just stood by the piano and I thought, bloody hell, isn’t this the most incredible thing I’ve ever seen?